PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Thousands of the rowers are in town this weekend for the annual “Head of the Schuylkill Regatta.” On Saturday, colleges from across the country competed.

Organizers call this “Philadelphia’s Fall Festival of Rowing,” and the city is well represented.

“Culminate our training for this race. And all the novices, this is their first race of the season,” said Chris O’Brien, head coach at Philadelphia University. “We have a whole bunch of people who just walked on to the team who had never rowed before. They did another sport in high school and then they rowed in college so they’re really excited for this race.”

1971 was the First “Head of the Schuylkill Regatta.” It included 180 competitors, but this weekend, 6,000 competitors from 23 states and six countries hit the water. Marin is a senior at Villanova. She was rowing with the men and was looking forward to finishing up strong.

“Last Head of the Schuylkill. It’s really exciting,” she said. “I’m with a great group of guys and there are a couple of seniors in the boat who are rowing down the river with me. So it’ll be a great race for all of us and definitely a memorable one.”

As for dealing with the frigid early morning temps, she said it’s not that bad.

“Two years ago,” she said. “It was snowing when everyone was rowing down.”

Saturday’s events included College and Champ eights, advertised as some of the fastest crews in the country. There were also Alumni races.

On Sunday, high school teams will compete. Organizers say they’re the fastest growing group in rowing.